Alice In Rainbowland – My Venture and Adventure to the Rainbow Book Fair by Doreen Perrine

Doreen Perrine stopped by to tell us all about the Rainbow Book Fair that takes place in New York on 4/13. Doreen will be doing a reading, so you should totally swing by if you’re in the area. Keep reading to learn all about it!

ALICE IN RAINBOWLAND–
MY VENTURE AND ADVENTURE TO THE RAINBOW BOOK FAIR
by
Doreen Perrine

Although I emigrated to the Hudson Valley region of New York from the city in 2005, the Fifth Annual Rainbow Book Fair on April 13^th is calling me backfor this special event. A kind of reverse Alice, I’ll fall back through the looking glass (or via the Metro North train) into the Wonderland of my former life—this time with a fresh and particularly community-minded twist.

Absence can certainly make the heart grow fonder and, as the newly published author of two novels of lesbian fiction, this exciting event fills me, like Alice, with grrlish wonder. What delightful sights and sounds await me there? Who will I know and meet? I am sure to encounter literary heroes, who speak for and in support of LGBT issues, at the Holiday Inn Midtown (440 West 57th Street, NYC between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Knowing what George, the gay father of my main character, also calls “My New York,” answers, like rainbows themselves, are sure to come in a spectrum of variety. According to the blog for the event http://rainbowbookfair.org/, a plethora of authors and publishers will be present. Readings, panels, celebrity appearances, dozens of exhibitors, and an all-day poetry salon will abound for the 12-6 pm duration of the fair. Due to the large number of attendees, I am slated to read for four minutes, which, for me, is a blessing in its own right—public reading being the thing I fear worse than death and even doing my taxes. For all the unknowns of navigating technology (and I am admittedly tech-challenged) to prepare for potential credit card purchases, I am pumped up for this book fair!

When I moved upstate, which has a lot more UP to it than I’d ever imagined, I referred to myself as a city hick. But life in the country has meant more quiet and a less demanding social life that amounted to a tradeoff of more time to write. Still, I sometimes pine for the mix of folks from all walks of life, the madly fun Manhattanites, and the uptown-downtown buzz of a Broadway day. Yep, I sometimes even miss the subway!

And so, two months before my pilgrimage to shout from the top of my Brooklyn lungs in the Dyke March from the Gertrude Stein statue and down Fifth Avenue, I am gearing up to venture south. To say I am looking forward to the Rainbow Book Fair is a vast understatement. I feel honored and rejuvenated by the prospect of being caught up in the wondrous energy of a truly New York state of mind—rainbows, books, and all.

http://rainbowbookfair.org/

About The Rainbow Book Fair, it is: “the longest running LGBT Book Fair in the United States. Be a part of the most exciting LGBT book event in the U.S. The 5th Annual New York Rainbow Book Fair will feature more than 1OO publishers, writers, poets, editors, booksellers, and the 15OO+ readers who love and buy their books—from the serious to the wild, from the zany to the super hot. Rainbow Book Fair is open to the public with book discounts and giveaways. (Some events will have ASL interpreters.)”

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Doreen Perrine has published two novels, Clara’s Story and the sequel Iz’s Journey, through Bedazzled Ink’s Nuance Imprint. Doreen’s short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and literary ezines and her plays have been performed throughout New York City. She is also an artist and art teacher who resides in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Her website address is http://doreenperrine.tripod.com/